The manufacture of cables, wires and tubes is preferably done in a continuous process, whereby the cables, wires or tubes may be processed before or during coiling. Processing operations may entail covering the cable with a plastic jacket or annealing a tube, etc. It is important that the processing operations can be performed without interruption in order to maintain quality and to avoid imperfections. Furthermore, manufacturing costs per meter of tube will be lower if normal running conditions for the processing operations can be achieved within a short time after the first initial length of the cable, wire or tube merges from the processing apparatus. This first initial part of the cable, wire or tube is often imperfect and may need to be removed before transporting the coiled tube.
Many times the processing operation of the cable, wire or tube (hereinafter referred to as tube) is followed by a coiling or spooling process. The tube may be coiled in a reeling apparatus by coiling the tube around a rotating main reel or spool. The tube may be guided to the reeling apparatus in different ways. For example, by using a guide arm or guide element, positioned at the end of the production line, and in the proximity of the reeling apparatus, but at a distance from the main reel. The guide element is to guide the tube from the production line towards the main reel.
The initial part of the tube is often comprised of imperfect tube, which needs to be removed from the main or finished tube that is to be transported to a customer. Separation of the initial part of the tube may be achieved by introducing a flange on the reel or spool after coiling the imperfect initial part on the main reel. The tube is preferably coiled around the flange so that coiling may continue without interruption of the manufacturing process. At the end, or even during, the coiling process, the initial part of the tube may be removed e.g. by cutting.
For some applications, tubes need to be cleaned at the end of the operation process. Some countries require the inside of hollow tubes used in, for example, air conditioning systems to be substantially free of oil residuals. This cleaning of tubes may be achieved by purging the tube with a gas, preferably a hot gas such as nitrogen, during processing and/or coiling of the tube. This may be achieved by attaching a gas pipe to an end of the tube that has been processed. The gas can than flow through the tube while being processed and coiled.
Coiled tubes may have a length of several kilometers and a weight of hundreds of kilograms. In order to purge a gas through such a long tube, the gas must have a substantially high pressure. A relative high gas pressure can be used for tubes having a diameter that is not too small. However, when the diameter of the tubes becomes too small, the walls of the tube may rupture when the gas pressure becomes too high. This problem is solved by decreasing the length of the tube. For example, two or more coils can be manufactured, whereby each coil has a length and a weight, which is for example halve or one third of the original tube
The two coils may be coiled and stacked on top of each other before being transported to a customer. The coiling of the first tube may be done in a conventional way, whereby the imperfect or flawed initial part of the tube is separated by coiling the flawed part of the tube under a flange on the main reel of the reeling apparatus. The remainder of the tube can then be coiled on top of the flange. Pressurized gas may be attached to the first tube by means of a connecting member. At the end of the first coiling process, the second tube may be processed by placing it on top of the first coil. The imperfect initial part of the second coil will arrive at the reeling apparatus and need to be collected and separated from the remainder of the coil. The gas pipe may then be attached to this second tube, and after this the coil can be wound on top of the first coiled tube. The initial part of the second tube will be located between the first coil and the second coil. The imperfect initial part needs to be removed prior to transportation. Flanges cannot be used because these will also need to be removed or separated before transportation. Lifting the heavy second coiled tube to remove the initial part and/or flanges is not a realistic option. The initial part of the second tube needs to be separated before the main part of the second tube is coiled on top of the first coil. This separation needs to be done during the continuous operation process of the second tube.